Seven years to sin
by Sara Tilly
Summary: (Non-magical) Dramione Story. It's their final year at Hogwarts and Hermione is determined to make the most of it. But when one of her tormentors starts to show a special interest in her, her final year changes drastically in ways she could never imagen. And when Draco Malfoy's old feelings start to resurface, is he ready to accept them?
1. Seven Years to Sin - Bright and Gifted

**_Seven Years To Sin_**

 _Chapter one_

 _Bright and Gifted_

There was not anything ill you could say about the Grangers. They were polite and kind people who, like many others, were a typical middle-class family. Although they lived in Hampstead, they were by no means wealthy. Instead, they were simple and honest workers and had been, through generations.

Mr and Mrs Granger inherited their house in Heathgate by Mr Granger late parents. They now lived there with their young daughter Hermione.

Both Mr and Mrs Granger worked as dentists down at a clinic in South Hampstead. They were known for their special interest in a lot of charity works regarding their profession. They never hesitated to help people in need.

So if they struggled in any way, it was nothing they seemed particularly bothered about. Instead, they seemed to simply look passed such trials and kept on living as much of a good life as possible.

Mr Granger was a light-skinned man with dark blonde hair and green eyes. His wife had long brown hair and light brown eyes. Somewhat shorter than her husband and had very gentle facial features. She liked to tend to their garden and enjoyed having tea with her female friends on the weekends. She often chatted with their neighbours over the hedges, about gardening, cooking and sometimes even let herself listen to the latest gossip regarding the neighbouring community.

Her husband, however, was more of an indoors person. He had a keen interest in books and spent a lot of his free time in his study, reading for hours and hours. But nevertheless, he still liked a nice conversation with their neighbours on the street, going out for a walk and sometimes he enjoyed to admire one of Mr Doyle's old classic cars across the street. And of course, they had a lot of friends that often visited and sometimes took their own children with them to play with Hermione.

Above all their interests, of course, Hermione was the greatest of them all. She was their only child and meant the world to them. And because of this, most of their time was dedicated to her.

Although it seemed like the Granger family was a very normal and average middle-class family, Hermione Granger was quite a special girl.

It was known that both her parents were very intelligent, but their daughter was even more so.

It could be discovered at a very early age, that she had a very keen mind. Not only was she very interested in learning and understanding things, but seemed to adapt and learn very quickly. She was a remarkably clever child. Hardworking and always eager to prove herself and taking on new challenges at any given opportunity. Like her father, she loved books and of course the information she could gather from them.

She had, of course, come to love school as well. The teacher was very much impressed with her and she was often given a lot of praise from them.

So to no one's surprise, she would, of course, receive a scholarship to one of the most prestigious independent schools in all of Europe.

Hogwarts school for the bright and gifted was not like any other school. Hermione had dreamed of entering for a long time. However,

Hogwarts didn't accept just anyone. Through the years the school had become known for its expensive tuition and its amount of students from families in the upper-class. Without a considerate amount of money, it was quite impossible to enter Hogwarts. Not only that but the entrance exam was one of a kind, and you needed to pass with full marks.

Although her family weren't even close to poor, they still did not possess such a huge amount of money to be able to pay the tuition. Which they had been forced to explain to a quite young Hermione when she first started to show interest in entering the school.

So, Hermione quickly gave up her dreams about Hogwarts, concentrating on finding another school what would suit her. However, as luck would have it, her hardworking, bright mind had not been overlooked.

Just after the Christmas holidays, she received a letter. Upon reading it,

It took a while for Hermione to actually take in the contents of it. Even her parents seemed a little bemused upon reading it as well.

 _Dear ms. Granger,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts school for the bright and gifted to attend the entrance exam regarding the annual scholarship program. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary information and preparations for the exam._

 _If and when your exam has been examined and approved your acceptance letter will arrive in early July. The exam will take place on May 12. Term begins on September 1. We await your answer no later than Mars 31._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Minerva McGonagall,_

 _Deputy Headmistress_

Even if everybody else seemed to look at this as a certainty, Hermione felt very humble about it all. Her dream was about to come true, and as it seemed, the tuition would not be a problem anymore, if she could just pass the entrance exam.

She felt relieved above all that her parents would not need to feel guilty anymore. It was after all, not at all cheap to live in London as it was, and so it was completely understandable that they could not afford to send her to Hogwarts with their regular salaries.

It was indeed a true privilege to be able to study at Hogwarts, so Hermione would give it her very best!

The entrance exam had been a challenge, but nothing she couldn't handle, and she felt very pleased as her official acceptance letter arrived in July.

The only things her parents had to pay for where her school uniform and her school supplies, money they seemed to think was well spent since their daughter now was attending Londons finest school.

Although Hermione knew from the very beginning that there was very little about Hogwarts that was normal compared to other schools, she had not quite understood the magnitude of it all. It became quite clear that these scholarships did not sit well with everyone.

From the very beginning, Hogwarts had been a school only for the children of privileged, and noble people with wealth and power. A lot of them from old aristocratic families. So of course, their children were enrolled almost at birth, since their whole family been students there before them.

Children from middle-class families were by no means welcome. At least not back then.

Fortunately, the school rules started to change once a new headmaster was assigned about thirty years ago. Albus Dumbledore believed that just because you did not possess any wealth or status, it did not mean that you didn't belong at Hogwarts.

So he became the first headmaster to create a scholarship program. This made many of the old families quite enraged. since they believed they were much greater and more important than everyone else because of their wealth and lineage. Inheritance meant everything to these people. So they did not think children of mere commoners and middle-class should be able to attend the same school as their own.

However, the headmaster fought for years before the school-committee finally agreed to his proposal.

The problem was, that even if the school now excepted children like Hermione, it did not mean that the upper-class students didn't inherit their families opinions. This made scholarship students easy targets of ridicule, mockery and a lot of taunting.

Her kind was often seen like vermin or dirt by many of the other students. Of course, far from everybody thought the same. There were others who detested the way Hermione and her fellow scholarship students were treated.

unfortunately, it did not stop students from showing their contempt against them any less. Over the years the so-called upper-class bluebloods had invented an own name for themselves. They started referring to themselves as pure, because of their, in their own minds, important and fine family lineage and came to call themselves purebloods.

Only the once referring to themselves as this looked down on people less fortunate than themselves.

Nevertheless, Hogwarts had started to look around for bright young children who did not belong to the upper classes, to widen their intake of different students. Giving those who did not live with the benefits of money and titles, a chance to show themselves and have a chance of becoming students at Hogwarts school.

And to Hermione's delight, she had been one of them. And that was how she came to attend Hogwarts.

She was glad not to have been a part of the dark history of the school, but she was proud of what she had accomplished and of who she was. She would never feel ashamed about it neither.

However, since she was unfamiliar with this kind of made up hierarchy she did not simply give in to it. The following six years she refused to give in to the constant harassment and bullying from pureblood fanatics.

The first year had been hard, no doubt about it. Especially since she would very soon found out what foul kind of name the purebloods had given students like her. Because of their lack of wealth and status, they had given them the name of mudbloods.

More to the point, it meant born in the gutter or raised in the dirt. Apparently, you had dirty blood in your veins if you were not from a powerful and known family, or did not possess the wealth that was considered at the very least, decent.

The name was forbidden at Hogwarts. Still, it didn't stop them from using it when teachers weren't around. Others did not even think of using it because they saw it as rubbish. Which helped considerably when it came to making friends at the school.

Over the years, she learned to ignore most of the verbal bullying, shutting it out from her mind as much as possible. However, it did not stop there, unfortunately.

There was a lot of shoving in the corridors and her belongings kept on disappearing, like her clothes during P.E, or she would find her bag pushed down the toilet. Sometimes even food came flying towards her during their lunch.

She kept her spirits up anyways. After all, she wasn't the only one having a hard time.

That she was about to begin her final year, was an extremely happy thought. She loved the school and her friends, but it would be nice to get away from the small-minded people and begin her own life with no pureblood mania at university.

Even if she had proven over time that she did indeed belong at Hogwarts by showing herself to be smarter than all of them combined. Her school results were far superior to theirs, and this, even if she felt a little bit more satisfied beating them at something, still meant they would torment her even more.

After all, it couldn't be fun going home to deliver the news that a mere commoner got better grades than themselves and try to explain why. This thought always amused her and made her feel a bit better about the whole ordeal.

Although she never told her parents about it all, and she was determined to keep it that way, she thought that she had found a new way of looking at it. it was after all her final year and she wanted to make the most of it. Focusing on getting high remarks on her final exams, getting references from teachers and sending in her university application and above all, spend as much time with her best friends and the rest of her classmates as possible.

She was not going to let anything or anyone destroy that for her.

That early first September morning Hermione got out of bed earlier than she usually would on a school day. She often did this when there was a new term about to start. She had been preparing for the last week, but always felt calmer if she had the time to look over everything one last time. She always felt that if she did not do this, she would forget something, or at least that was what her brain told her she would if she did not check her to-do-list at least twice a day.

She always felt anxious before the start of a new year. She needed everything to be perfect and under control.

Now she also needed to keep up with everything regarding the choice of university. After all, one year wasn't that much time to prepare, at least not in her opinion.

She kept worrying about if she had forgotten anything. If she had all of her books, notebooks and pens, or if she might have bought her new school uniforms in the wrong size, which of course she hadn't, but she worried about it all the same. or maybe she missed a sock or a pair of stocking, or maybe it was the wrong colour!

So she double-checked everything again and again, and every time she found everything in order.

When Hermione had gotten out of the shower, her yellow furball of a cat, Crookshanks was laying on top of one of her pillows in her bed. There where things scattered all over the bed, but he did not seem to mind at all. He just laid there, purring in satisfaction as Hermione started to get dressed.

She was about to pack down all her school books into a paper bag when there was a knock on her door and her mother entered.

"Breakfast is ready darling, your father is downstairs waiting."

"I'll be right there, just need to finish up here first," she answered quickly as she put down the last one in the bag.

Her mother sighed as she walked further into her daughter's bedroom. "Do you need any help?" She asked slowly.

"No, I'm almost done, I'll be down in a second."

Her mother didn't answer but Hermione could feel her eyes watching her carefully.

"Darling, do I need to be worried about this?" She suddenly asked.

Baffled by the question, Hermione lifted her head an looked at her mother with her eyebrows raised.

Her mother was wearing a blue knee length skirt and a white blouse. Her brown hair was pinned up in an elegant bun and her facial expression looked bothered.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked and as she did so her mother looked around the room and lifted her arms as to gesture what she meant. It was when she did this that Hermione followed her gaze and realized something she hadn't yet.

Her room was a complete mess.

There were things literally everywhere. it looked like a full-fledged war zone. She knew she been looking for a lot of things when she started to pack her school bags, but she hadn't quite understood what she actually been doing.

Every drawer in her dresser, all her boxes and books had been scattered on the floor. Paper, clothes and all kinds of things were laying in piles in every square inch of her room. She hadn't noticed the chaos until now.

"Oh.." She exhaled.

Jean Granger was very familiar with her daughter's behaviour before the days of a new term. She had been walking right into these kinds of situations for the last six years. This time, however, it was considerably worse. Hermione had always had a habit of overdoing it in nervous situations. The stress she could always handle, but the nerves... That was Hermione's weakness. She always panicked, which resulted in a mental breakdown just like this one, when she wouldn't even notice how messy her room had become for the last couple of days.

She looked around at the chaos that now was in her room. She never seemed to come up with a way to make it easy and organized, which was strange since she usually had such control over everything.

Her mother chuckled as Hermione could do no more than simply sigh and collapse on top of the side of her bed. Crookshanks, who did not seem at all concerned about his owner's inner turmoil just changed his sleeping position and kept on sleeping and did not mind the very least when Hermione tried to stroke him along his back.

"Do I really need to remind you every single year that you're not going off to boarding school? You don't have to bring exactly every single thing with you on your first day." Her mother lectured her.

"I'm not bringing every single thing!" Hermione justified, "but since we don't get our schedules until early today, how am I suppose to know what classes we will have for the rest of the day? What if it turns out we have English and I don't have my books with me, What will I do then?"

"I'm not talking about your books darling, I'm talking about everything else." She walked over picking up some of the shirts Hermione had packed into a gym bag. "Do you really need to bring all this for one day at school?" she asked.

"I might need them," Hermione argued, "accidents happen and I want to be prepared."

She did not want to mention why these, so-called accidents were bound to happen, instead, she tried to sound as convincing she could. Her mother, however, did not seem to buy this at all.

"Really, so you might have five accidents in just one day?"

Hermione sighed once again. "I guess not," although that actually could be the case on a bad day.

"And this?" she was holding the university applications in her hand, looking concerned. " you're not supposed to send these in until in a couple of months. why do you need to bring them to school tomorrow?"

"I thought Professor McGonagall might want to look through them. She might ask you know." Hermione explained.

"Hermione Jean Granger, I would be very surprised if your homeroom teacher had any plans on looking over her student's university applications on your first day of the year." she sighed, "I know, this school has a lot of expectations when it comes to their students, but you are clearly overdoing it."

Even if she knew that her mother was right, she still felt like she needed to be more prepared.

"Alright, I won't bring everything," Hermione muttered, a small lie, but she did not feel like arguing about it with her mother.

"Good. Now, I will go downstairs and get you a tray with some food and a cup of tea and then I will help you get this under control before its time for us to go." She looked overly satisfied with herself as she exited the room.

Hermione stood up to start picking up her things from the floor when she caught herself staring into the mirror above her dresser and gaped. Her face was flushed red, concealing even her freckles she received during the summer holidays. Her eyes big, round and glazed, and her hair... It was all over the place It had somewhat started to dry after the shower, making it return to its bushy, untidy mess that now stood out in every possible angle.

She knew that if she tried to brush it out now she would get insane. She'd forgotten about it when her mother had come in. So now she looked like a troll. An appearance she would never ever show herself in again. At least not in public, and even more so, not at Hogwarts.

A fact that her mother knew very well herself, so when she returned, with a tray in her hand with two pieces of toast and a cup of hot tea, she put it on the dresser, pushed her daughter gently down on a chair and started to calmly brush her hair.

"Feels like you're eleven again, on your way to your very first day," she reminisced. "You were so excited and I honestly thought you would give your father a heart attack with all that jumping and running. I did your hair that day too."

She smiled and met Hermione's glance in the mirror, making it even more clear that she enjoyed fixing her seventeen-year-old daughter's chaotic hair.

Hermione smiled back a little as she took her teacup and drank some of its sweet content.

After a couple of minutes, Hermione had an elegant French braid in her hair and her red face had somewhat lightened. She put on some mascara before aiding her mother in cleaning up all of her things.

within a half-hour the room was clean, the bed made and Hermione's school things packed and ready, and Hermione felt a lot calmer, thanks to her mother.

As they came down the stairs to the hallway with Crookshanks just behind them, probably hoping for some food before they all went, her father was already dressed and ready to leave the house.

"Are you ready to go? I want to get going before the traffic goes ballistic," he told them gently.

Except for the part of Hermione's panicked situation upstairs and her mothers intervening, this was a typical morning for the Grangers. Usually, Her parents would go up first, making breakfast, and while her mother got herself ready, her father would read the morning paper and feed Crookshanks. Hermione would come down, eat with them and then they would be off to work and school.

Hermione often got a lift down to South Hampstead when she started early. From there she would get on the Jubilee line from Finchley Road and then change in Green Park to the Piccadilly line the last two stations. Because of course, a school such as Hogwart was located in Knightsbridge, one of the more wealthy parts of London.

Her parents dropped her off by the station just in time, and Hermione could get into the station without the need to hurry.

She somehow succeeded to carry both two bags and the paper bag with her down to the platform without too much trouble. As she stood there, waiting, she thought about how this year would unfold.

Of course, she wanted to make the most of it and spend as much time as possible with her friends but also keep up with school work, something she had to remind her best friends Harry and Ron repeatably when it came to their own education. Because they were not stupid, far from it. Lazy and unorganized, yes. At least when it came to their education. Their minds were more focused on the school soccer teams. However, she found it a lot better for them to be passionate about something rather than nothing. Except for their habit of getting into trouble. That passion she thought everyone could live without.

As always, she changed from the Jubilee line to the Piccadilly and then started to look for her friends that usually took the same tube.

She found them after a few minutes. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom, who were all in the same class as her, and Rons younger sister Ginny sat chattering like every other morning. The carriage was as always packed with people, so Ginny was sitting comfortably in Harry's lap while her brother tried to ignore this by being in a very important conversation with Neville.

Ginny and Harry had been dating for the last half year. Ron had taken it pretty well considering his liking for his sister's previous boyfriends, or rather, lack of it.

"Good morning Hermione!" Ginny shouted as she jumped up and gave her a big hug. Ginny was one year younger than the rest of them and one of the few friends Hermione had who were, in fact, a girl.

She spent most of her time with Harry and Ron, but it was Ginny she could talk with at times when she needed a girls point of view, but she found it easier to talk about a lot of things with her. And Ginny probably needed a girl to talk to too, since she'd grown up with six older brothers. She and Ron were the youngest and the only two left at Hogwarts. They lived outside London in Chatham and had to take an early train to Kings cross every morning. This could easily be noticed in Ron's face every morning. He looked as tired as always.

"Where do you get all that bloody energy from this early in the morning? It's mental" Ron growled at Ginny.

"Why? Trouble sleeping at night brother?" Ginny grinned.

"I sleep just fine," Ron snapped. "Just because I'm not jumping around shouting this early, doesn't mean I don't sleep."

Ginny just kept on grinning but gave her brothers response a mild shrugged before she leaned in and whispered in Hermione's ear.

"Fred and George visited us this weekend. While Ron was out helping dad, They decorated his whole bedroom with fake spiders. He hasn't liked being in his room since then."

Ron was absolutely terrified of spiders. Something the Weasley twins loved to harass him for. They were two years older than Ron and now owned their own joke shop in central London. They also had a flat they shared above it. Their continuing pranks was the only reason why Hermione thought she was lucky for being an only child.

She couldn't help it when a small chuckle got out of her. It was not often she laughed when it came to the ideas of Fred and George Weasley. However, sometimes she let herself enjoy it, just a little.

Neville stood up, offering his seat but she kindly refused him since she knew he often had very bad luck while trying to do a nice thing, or anything at all really.

Neville lived with his Grandmother since his parents had been hospitalized for many years. He did not like to talk about it and no one pressured him about it either. When he did talk about it he always used the excuse that he was being fuzzy, since he was better of compared to Harry who's parents died when he was a baby. Harry, however, thought himself to be very lucky. For the first couple of years, he'd been living with his aunt and uncle but they were awful people. He later moved in with his godfather Sirius Black, when he was fourteen and had stayed there ever since. Sometimes Hermione thought that maybe Sirius was more of a brother to Harry than a parent, but she stopped mentioning it since Harry was a lot better of with Sirius than with the Dursleys.

They were all very wonderful people, and they did not believe in any of the nonsense about Hermione not belonging at Hogwarts. To them, she was just like any other classmate, and she loved them for it. She belonged with them. She was after all, just like them.


	2. Seven Years to Sin - Headboy and girl

_**Seven Years To Sin**_

 _Chapter two_

 _Headboy and Headgirl_

Ginny left them at the school entrance to wait for her classmates while the rest of them went ahead. As usual, the first day would begin in the Great Hall were all students and teachers would gather to get information about the upcoming year.

"Let's put all our things in our lockers first. Don't want to carry around my bag all day for nothing." Ron muttered and then looked at Hermione. "Why do you always tend to bring so much stuff with you every year? All that won't fit in your locker."

Hermione rolled her eyes in response. "I'm not putting all off this in my locker. Not this one at least."

One of the bags Hermione had brought with her wasn't for lessons.

In addition to the seven floors where the education was held, there was also a big cellar. Where Madam Hooch, the P.E teacher had her office. But there was also a gym and a big swimming pool located down there.

Most of the students were more interested in soccer than anything else. In the school courtyard, there was a big field where they practised and played matches. This was something Hogwarts was very proud of since their teams were really good. However, Hermione was one of the very few who enjoyed swimming instead. When she occasionally got restless, she usually walked downstairs when she knew there weren't any students there. She therefore rarely got disturbed.

Unlike her fellow schoolmates, she wasn't interested in soccer, in fact, she didn't like those kinds of sports at all. It might have been because she wasn't rather good at it. However, swimming she was good at, and it meant she could stretch her muscles without having any prying eyes around. Madam Hooch even let her use it after school or during her free period without supervision. In addition to that, she had been given her own private locker where she could keep her stuff. It made it easier for her to go down there any day and at any time without the need to remember to bring her swimwear. This was what the second bag was for.

"So you're keeping up with your hobby this year too? I thought you said you wouldn't have much time for that." Harry pointed out.

"It's not a hobby, it's called exercise and yes. I might not have as much time for it this year but I still want to continue if I can." She told him.

Their lockers were in the second-floor corridor and Hermione felt her stomach wrench as she got sight off hers.

On the locker door, someone had scribbled with a black permanent marker. The word FILTH covered the whole door and could be seen from quite a distance.

"Oh, not again." Neville sighed, glancing at her locker. "They didn't waste any time at all, did they?"

Ron and Harry stopped upright and glared at the word

"I'm going to kill that lousy git when I get my hands on him," Ron growled his eyes burning with hate. Harry was quiet but his eyes and posture said exactly the same thing. his fist was clutched and his teeth gritted so much that Hermione could almost hear it standing next to him.

However, she knew quite well that this was no work of his. He wouldn't bother doing this unless he actually got the chance to see her expression when she found out. No, this was someone else, one of his classmates no doubt. She was pretty sure she knew who it was.

"Calm down Ronald," she began, "it's no use, it could have been anyone really."

She put her things down on the floor in front of the locker and started to dig inside her school bag. She took out a clean cloth and a flask of acetone.

"You shouldn't have to bring stuff like that with you." Harry snapped. "We should tell Professor McGonagall about this."

"Leave it, Harry," Hermione argued. "I won't let these childish pranks get to my head. It's really not worth it."

Besides, she was used to it by now. After six years, this was nothing.

She successfully got the graffiti off her locker in just three minutes and opened it up. At least they hadn't found their way inside it, yet.

Over the past couple of years, she'd learned not to keep anything of importance in there, instead, she kept all her books and notes in her school bag, which she carried with her at all times. Instead, she kept a few things in there as decoys.

"Harry, could I borrow a shelf in your locker for my books today. I have to get a better lock for mine before I start putting my things in it." She said.

"Of course, I didn't bring much anyway." Harry sighed disappointedly. She guessed that it had to do with her disapproval about him and Ron trying to pick a fight with another student.

She put her swimwear bag inside as well but kept her school bag tossed over her shoulder. "Let's go, or we'll be late."

The huge old building was a perfect place for a school. It had a magnificent view over Hyde Park, and the building had stood there for what seemed like an eternity.

The school had existed for several centuries and had been founded by four individuals. Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin and Helga Hufflepuff.

From the very beginning, these people valued different traits in their students, this later became the result of separating the students into four different so-called houses. After the founders, the houses were each named after them. In each of these houses, you could develop certain skills and experiences according to what interested you. Something that would help you in your search for further education and hopefully to a profession that would suit each individual.

With the help from an introduction letter every student had to send in with their application first year, the teachers and the headmaster could determine which house the students would most likely be best suited in.

The truth was, it did actually make a lot of sense when you got to know the people in your year that the sorting was indeed quite accurate.

Hermione got sorted into Gryffindor house her first year, together with Harry, Ron and Neville. Ginny also belonged to Gryffindor, but in the class below them, of course.

Every year, the whole school would gather in the great hall to watch as the new students were brought up to the podium in the Great hall and officially get sorted into each house. Hermione couldn't say she envied them. She had been shaking up there her first day.

The Great hall was located on the ground floor and was enormous. With big windows along the sides an the ceiling was several feet high. The seats inside were divided into four section - one for each house and in the front on the podium, all their teachers were seated together with the headmaster.

Students were still pouring in when they arrived. The rest of their classmates were sitting at the Gryffindor section and Hermione met eyes whit Ginny who was talking to a friend.

Just as they were about to head that way down the mid-path someone shoved Hermione hard in the back so that she almost fell to the floor, but was saved by Harry's arm.

"Watch it, mudblood."

His drawling voice was as familiar to her as the sound of book pages turning. She could feel her whole body intensify but at the same time, she felt a great amount of annoyance as well.

She turned around to glare at him and found him standing there with a fowl grin on his face. Behind him stood his usual gang of Slytherin classmates.

If there was anyone that hated Hermione's kind, it was Draco Malfoy. For years, he'd been making life miserable for her. He was nothing like the others.

One-quarter of the students, in particular, went to extremes to show their disapproval of people like Hermione entering Hogwarts.

In Slytherin, there was not a single student who didn't think people like Hermione was an abomination to the school. Slytherin was the house for students whose parents were either really old money, rich entrepreneurs or those with high ranking titles. They were cunning, ambitious and resourceful when it came to their own needs. No one in the other houses liked them, however, their prejudices about the middle-class still lived on in some of the other houses as well, though they never actually did or say anything that would make Hermione and her kind unwelcome. That was Slytherin students privilege altogether.

"Sod off, Malfoy." Harry hissed.

Harry and Malfoy hated each other from their very first day at Hogwarts. Though Malfoy had tried to befriend him the first day, Harry refused to play along and rejected his hand after Malfoy had made fun of Ron and his family. After that, they were basically enemies for life.

"Trying to defend this filthy little commoner are you Potter?" he sneered. "This little abomination, she's not worth more than a servant. That's where you should be Granger, In our houses, cleaning floors."

Both Harry and Ron was about to jump right at him but was stopped by Malfoys two bodyguard friends. Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, two enormous thickheads who's shared intelligence could be compared to that of a small brick. What they did at Hogwarts was a mystery. Hermione guest having connections in the school committee had its rewards. However, when it came to fighting and using their size as leverage they were quite effective.

Harry and Ron struggled to get loose as Malfoy closed in on Hermione.

"Your knights in shining armour can't help you now Granger, so what will you do?"

"Leave her alone." Neville stuttered nervously. Trying to sound braver than he was. Neville was like any student and had a respectable name and family. However, he had been having an even harder time than Hermione for the first couple of years. As a young boy, he had been chubby, nervous and very clumsy, and did not seem to have had much luck in life at all. This made him a perfect target for the Slytherins. In addition to that, he started to spend time with Harry, Ron and Hermione and stood up for all scholarship students.

Even if he'd been a little of a klutz and struggled somewhat with his studies, he was a very kind and brave person. And over the years, people were not as eager to make fun of him as much, probably because of how much he had changed. Both in his appearance and his self-confidence. Neville was now seventeen and a lot taller, leaner and tried not to be as clumsy as he used to, even if he still was somewhat of a klutz which in Hermione's opinion was a charming trait./p  
p class="Normal"

However, when it came to Malfoy and the rest, he much like Hermione got nervous and sometimes even scared.

He'd been the first Hogwarts student Hermione got the chance to meet.

Her first day on her way on the subway train, she met a very nervous and panicking Neville who'd lost his toad. Apparently, he was bringing it for Biology class and had a box with him. Only the box was empty, and somewhere on the train, there was a toad on the run. Fortunately, after helping him look for it, they found it sitting in a sleeping old man's lap. The rest of the way they kept each other company, and they'd been friends ever since.

"What did you say, Longbottom?" Malfoy snarled. "Don't worry, I'll get to you in just a moment, but first I need to make sure this filthy mudblood knows her place."

Behind Crabbe and Goyle a giggling noise emerged from a black haired girl standing next to two other boys. Pansy Parkinson, the person Hermione suspected was responsible for the vandalism of her locker. She was known for being obsessed with Malfoy and the previous year it seemed like they actually were a couple, however, Malfoy didn't seem all that interested funnily enough.

Next to her stood a grinning Theodore Nott. A rabbit faced boy and a class clown. He and Malfoys parents were close and he did quite well in his exams, that was pretty much what she knew about him. He mostly just followed Malfoy around. His hobby was mostly to disturb classes and harass first years. And of course, his dislike for Hermione was equal to the rest of the Slytherins.

Beside him, Blaise Zabini just looked bored and uninterested about the whole situation. She had never really understood him. The others were easy to read, Zabini however...

For as long as Hermione could remember he had never said anything bad or done anything to her. He simply seemed to pretend she did not exist. It was the same when it came to Harry and the others. He just seemed to find himself above all of them. Even Malfoy.

However, suddenly he met her gaze for a second and she could have sworn that he had raised his eyebrow and then quickly looked away at Malfoy, looking curious.

"Hermione put the thought aside as she looked at Malfoy feeling furious. Every single inch of fear left her body and she stood up as straight as she possibly could before answering.

"I'm exactly where I should be, Malfoy, My place will always be here, so that I can keep beating you in every subject and in every exam, or do you plan on relying on your daddy's money with that as well?"

She knew she been hitting a nerve but the look on his face amused her too much for her to pass the opportunity to gloat.

Disbelieve turned in to rage and before she knew it he reached for her throat. His hand closed around it and she could feel his fingers shake from anger. His cold grey eyes stared into hers and she could see that he was considering what he should do to her. He was as furious as she had been just a moment ago.

"Say that again, I dare you!" He hissed while his hand clutched even harder around her throat, now making it harder for her to breath. Even so, Hermione refused to give in.

"You - heard - me." She squeaked. His grip made it hard for her to speak and it started to hurt.

"Draco, give it a break," Zabini droned. "You will be in big trouble if a teacher sees you. Let her go."

It looked like he was debating it for a moment before he suddenly let go of her and backed away. His face was red and his jaw clicked in rage and he didn't stop glaring at her.

"Don't push your luck, mudblood..." he warned as he turned around and left. The rest of the Slytherins did the same except for Zabini. He looked around and gestured towards Neville who had rushed to her side to look at her tender throat.

"Make sure to let Madam Pomfrey take a look at her," he said and then turned around and went after the others. Harry and Ron came running after Crabbe and Goyle had let them go and tried to help when Hermione suddenly started to shake and lost the control of her legs.

"Hermione, are you alright?" Neville asked nervously while he and Harry tried to pull her up.

Ron was standing there with a grim look on his face. "What the hell was all that about?! It looked like he was about to choke you to death," He swore as he turned to look at the Slytherin section, "Who does that to another person? Has he ever done this to you before?"

She shook her head and took a glance in the same direction. No, he had never even so much as touched her the past six years, except for one time long ago. However, not like that.

"I'm alright guys, thank you," she said sounding horse and a bit shaken. She had not been prepared for that kind of reaction at all. Malfoy was an enormous git and did stop at nothing when it came to tormenting her mentally and emotionally, which sometimes did more damage. But physical violence? No, not even when Hermione had punched him in his face their third year he'd gone after her. The truth was he had made sure to stay away from her for the rest of that year.

"I wanna smack him so hard he won't be able to remember his own name..." Ron growled.

"Hermione already tried that, remember? It didn't help for very long." Harry said but gave Ron a persistent look.

"Well, he deserved it," Ron muttered. Hermione couldn't help but to smile, it was true, he always deserved it. She was just lucky, that she was the one to do it to him.

In their third year, Malfoy, together with some of his fellow classmates, caught Neville one morning before school started and stripped him of his clothes and then duct taped him to one of the flagposts on the school courtyard. When the rest of the students arrived, they surrounded the flagpost and instead of helping him, they stood there laughing. When Hermione finally got there she got a hold of one of the caretakers to help her cut him down.

Furious and hot-tempered she later found Malfoy, hanging around his friends boasting about how he'd sneered Neville into his trap. She had never been so angry all her life. It was one thing to torment her, but her friends? She was not gonna let that go, ever. It was meant to be a slap in the face. but upon seeing his smug grin, it ended up as a real punch, right to the nose, and she succeeded to break it. Hermione sprained her hand in the process but found it extremely worth it.

"Hermione you should tell Dumbledore about this," Neville argued.  
"Neville it's no use, I'm fine okay? Even one of his own followers stopped him, it will be alright."  
"I don't know," Harry looked concerned. "If this is what he pulls the first day. He might do something even worse the next time. maybe you should tell him, Hermione, or Professor McGonagall." She thought it was funny coming from him since he never went to teachers with his personal problems.

"Can we drop this now please?" She asked irritably.

"If you don't go we will." Ron began but Hermione who had lost her patience interrupted.

"Ronald!" she yelled angrily narrowing her eyes at him. "Just, let me handle it, alright? It will only get worse if you try to get yourselves involved. I can handle Draco Malfoy." At least she hoped so.

As they continued down the rows of seats Ginny came running like a bullet from a rifle.

"I saw the whole thing! That awful, evil, sodding git, are you alright Hermione? oh, I wanna punch his ugly grin in and break every bone in his body." She said all this in one breath.

"My sister, ladies and gentlemen. " Ron grinned.

Ginny looked at Hermione's throat for a moment. "It's not swollen, yet at least, but it's very red. If it doesn't go away during the nearest hour you should go and see Madam Pomfrey," she muttered. "Come! there's a couple of seats behind us where you can sit."

So they followed her and sat down, waiting for the rest of the students and the teachers to arrive.  
Hermione was a bit sore but didn't feel all that bad. Most of the chock had disappeared and she felt somewhat proud that she hadn't given in. However, she thought it best to try and stay away from Malfoy and his cronies. She didn't feel like repeating the previous incident.

When everyone had arrived, including the new first years, the sorting took place. They all looked very nervous at first but when sorted and allowed to go down from the podium to sit with their newly appointed house they lightened up and looked excited.

After this, it was time for Albus Dumbledore's usual welcome back speech. He looked very much like Santa Claus, some people even called him Gandalf the Grey, not that he minded it. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it.

"Welcome to another exciting year at Hogwarts, and of course a very welcome to our new first years, I hope that you all will enjoy your future years at our school!" He beamed down at them all and continued. "Before we can begin our first day back, I will have to require a couple of minutes of your time for some start-of-term notices." he smiled. "Once again, Mr Filch has asked me to remind you that all products of Weasley Wheezes are prohibited, and even if we had some issues regarding this rule previous year, I urge you to keep these things at home."

"Like that will ever happen." Ron chuckled. Weasleys Wheezes was the name of Fred and George's joke shop. Hermione had not been surprised when their product had been forbidden last year. There were not things you kept in school.

"I also want to remind our seventh years that you should start to consider what you want to do in the future and if it is your wish to enter university, to start preparing for it. The soccer tryouts will be held a couple of weeks from now and if anyone is interested you should contact your house captain or your P.E teacher Madam Hooch."

He turned around with an arm outstretched towards the chair Madam Hooch was sitting in. "And now, to some even more important matters. We have eight new perfect positions to hand out and also, the honours to assign one new head boy and head girl."  
Ron sighed in relief, "at least I don't need to worry about being head boy, you will have a better chance of that than me, mate." He looked at Harry who grinned in response.

Hermione felt that she would be quite honoured if she were to be chosen as head girl. After all, it was a big achievement and would look very good on her university applications.

"Let's begin with our new fifth year prefects." Dumbledore continued, and as he called out each name, the student's got to walk up to the podium and receive their badges. Some looked prouder than others but they still smiled as they shook Dumbledores hand and walked down again. Dumbledore wished them all good luck before he continued.

"Being heads of the school is a very difficult task and I, as always, hope you all will treat them well. This year I have chosen two very intelligent, ambitious and hardworking students. They have proven themselves to handle both pressure and stress in an honourable fashion. and both, have kept their friends close during these past six years. So I would like to congratulate and present to you all, your new head boy and head girl, Mr Draco Malfoy from Slytherin house and Ms Hermione Granger from Gryffindor house."

People applauded, but Hermione was completely numb. She couldn't move a muscle. However, it was not because of the surprise of her name being called, but Malfoys.

"How the bloody hell did he get chosen to be the head boy?" Ron swore. Harry hit him with an elbow to the side when he thought Hermione wasn't looking.

"Contragulations Hermione!" He said but it didn't sound all that convincing, and she couldn't blame him.

Like the tradition followed, she stood up and walked past her friends where they sat, to get up to the podium. She tried to cover her throat as much as possible with the help from her shirt and cardigan before walking up the small stair to greet the headmaster. Across the podium Malfoy was walking towards Dumbledore as well, looking annoyed.  
Dumbledore began my shaking Hermione's hand and ceremonially placing the head girl batch on her uniform.

"Thank you, sir," she said quietly as to not raise suspicions if her voice sounded strained.

"It's my honour, Ms Granger, I am very proud of what you have accomplished your years studying here. I wish you good luck." He gave her a gentle and kind smile that made her feel a little better. He then turned around to greet Malfoy and exchange a couple of words with him as well, something that made Malfoy even more annoyed it seemed. Then he turned towards the crowd of students and pulled both Hermione and Malfoy closer to him with one arm around each of their shoulder.

"Congratulations and I hope you will work hard together to make this school even better this year."

Everyone started once again to applaud, but Hermione, who actually been hoping for this at first, now only felt incredibly nauseous.


	3. Seven Years to Sin - Guilt and Regret

**_Seven Years To Sin_**

 _Chapter three_

 _Guilt and Regret_

As they all left the great hall, he could still feel the rage burn inside of him like wildfire. At the moment he wanted nothing more than to find something hard and solid to smash his fists into. For years, he'd kept control over his own temper and his most violent impulses. He knew what kind of troublesome situations he would get himself into if he did not keep his anger from lashing out unexpectedly.

He tried to remind himself of this as he was walking down the corridors, clutching his fists as hard as he possibly could, trying to keep what little control he had left. Truth was, he had not felt like this in ages, and for a moment in there, he had forgotten how hard he had worked to keep this kind of shit from happening.

His thoughts and opinions on Hermione Granger and the rest of her kind was a well-known fact. They did not belong at this school.

It had become a habit of his to make her life at Hogwarts as miserable as possible. Even though he knew this wouldn't change the fact that she was indeed a student, he very much enjoyed seeing her face as he would call her by the name given to her kind.

Of course, the proud little know-it-all always pretended like his words and actions did nothing to her. However, Draco knew it did. And that was often satisfaction enough. The knowledge that he could get inside of her head.

He would never admit to anyone that tormenting this particular mudblood was a perfect distraction when he felt like he was losing control over his temper. A bad day would feel considerably better after just a couple of minutes taunting her. It calmed him down, and he had no fucking clue as to why. Because it shouldn't, yet it did.

However, that had not been the case this morning.

He'd been in a foul mood all morning. From waking up, realizing he had to get to this lame excuse of a school, sitting down at breakfast, being lectured about his disinterest in his future by his father, who was displeased with his exam results the previous year. And to listen to how much money his parents had spent on Draco's education and how Lucius Malfoy would not let his legacy be stepped upon by a simple commoner beating his own son's school results. And to walk into the great hall seeing this commoner smiling with those idiots that called themselves her friends. He should have let it go. He shouldn't have pushed it, he knew that. Or at least he usually did. The impulse to walk right past her to get his mind on something else had been too much of a temptation. He needed the distraction, only too get an already touchy subject thrown in his face. He knew she could snap back at him sometimes. And most of the time he enjoyed it. Making it more of a challenge to rattle her.

Only this time, she was the one succeeding to rattle him up. Everything around them had disappeared and all he saw was her triumphing smile as she got to him. The mere thought of it made him even more furious. He had never meant to choke her. He didn't even remember doing it. But as she kept fighting back he would get even angrier and if Blaise hadn't stopped him. He was afraid he might have strangled her.

Not that she didn't deserve it, or that it would have been a loss. He just didn't think she was worth getting into trouble for.

And get, upon seeing her on the podium, trying to cover her throat from the headmaster had given him a strange distaste in his mouth. And at the same time, he felt somewhat pleased that he had left a mark on her. A feeling that made him extremely uncomfortable.

Behind him, his fellow Slytherins walked together, discussing the events during the sorting ceremony. He did not really pay it any attention until her name was brought up.

"Of course they would choose little ms Granger to be head girl. She's always been the teachers favourite." Pansy snarled in dislike.

"Jealous much?" Nott asked, gloating. "Although I was certain Potter would get the position as head boy. I'm surprised he didn't."

So was Draco, but he kept quiet.

Pansy let out a snort. "I knew Draco would get chosen. He has always been the right choice, being born with natural authority is a must to become a successful head of Hogwarts. It's a disgrace giving such a powerful position to a filthy mudblood."

Draco tried to count to ten before snapping at them both to stop talking about her. It was annoying and the last thing he wanted on his mind at the moment was Hermione Granger.

As they walked up the main staircase to get to their lockers before their first lesson, Blaise walked up beside him.

"Is everything alright mate?" he asked.

Draco clutched his jaw. "It's fine."

He could feel Blaise looking at him, frowning.

"You don't seem all that fine to me. What was all that about, with Granger?"

For fuck sake...

"Can we just drop it? He snapped at his friend. "The last thing I want to talk about is that fucking mudblood."

He turns around to glare at the rest of his company. "So shut your mouths. All of you."

"Someone is in a bad mood today it seems." Nott grinned.

"Shut up Nott," Blaise warned and turned Draco around to keep him from making one more bad decision.

"Take it easy, we have Science the first two periods. Clam down before you get us all in a pinch." He said, probably in an attempt to help him. But Draco just got more annoyed.

However, he didn't feel like arguing with his best friend so instead of sneering back at him. he turned his gaze on to the stone floor, nodding absently.

He felt somewhat calmer as they walked from their lockers on the fifth floor to their homeroom teachers classroom. Severus Snape was the only teacher Draco could stand, and he was probably the only teacher who could stand him in return.

Not that he was all that interested in science as a subject, but because Professor Snape didn't like any other students other than the ones in his own house. And he absolutely hated Gryffindor students. So, of course, he was the only teacher not mesmerised by the knowledgeable ms Granger.

He wanted to hit himself for letting her sneak inside his head again. He never paid any attention to her when she wasn't around so why did he start to think about her now?

And just like that, he saw her. She and the rest of her classmates were standing outside Snape's classroom with their Science books in hand. It had to be the worst morning of his entire life. Someone wanted him punished.

She suddenly met eyes with him and Draco could see both fear and anger flash by in her eyes. Her hand automatically moved up towards her throat, as to protect it, but the stopped herself, lifted her head up proudly and stared at him with dislike.

Draco knew if he kept looking her way, his impulses would be set in motion and he would not have any control left to stop them. He wanted nothing more than to tear that look from her face. Chock her, and make her fear him more than ever.

But instead, he turned away, leaned against the wall and kept his eyes at the ground.

It was not worth it, not worth it, not worth it. he kept telling himself.

"How's your precious little neck doing, filth?" Pansy suddenly bellowed. Grabbe, Goyle and Nott grinned beside her as she walked a little closer to the Gryffindor group.

Draco had always enjoyed Pansy. She wasn't the best looking girl in school, but she was fun to have around as a distraction whenever he needed one. Her need to feel important and special to him made her easy to manipulate. She followed him no matter what. But truth was that it had become somewhat of an annoyance the past couple of years. He tried to date her for a while last year, but it only made her needier and Draco had no interest in such nonsense.

And right now he wanted nothing else but for her to shut up.

She didn't get a response. which made Draco curious, so he looked up, only to met eyes with Granger again. She waited for him to make a move. He knew it. She was going to fight back if he did and he was not going to give her that. Not this time. He knew if he started something now, he wouldn't be able to stop.

"Didn't you hear me mudblood? or have you lost your voice?" Pansy continued.

"Piss of Pansy." Weasley barked in response.

Just as Draco thought he had no other choice but to barge right into the fight, the door to the classroom slammed open and it all ended. As both Gryffindors and Slytherins started to walk inside to take their seats, Draco was grateful that their Professor had such good timing.

Draco usually sat in the front row during Severus Snape's classes. But today however he needed some privacy and a chance to easily drift away in his own thoughts and not be disturbed. Since he was in such a bad mood, he didn't want his favourite teacher to notice.

Of course, his friends followed him. Beating Blaise to the seat next to him, Pansy leaned as much as she could to brush herself against Draco, like a purring cat.

He ignored her and placed his arms against the table and leaned his head down against them. watching as Snape started the lesson by explaining what they would be studying this year.

Draco couldn't help but look to where she sat, two rows in front of him. He didn't like the way she popped into his head. As soon as she did he would get a feeling of restlessness and the only time he felt a little more relaxed was when he got the chance to mess around with her. The little know-it-all. Seeing her upset or frustrated because of him made him feel better.

Even more so if he could see that little glance of fear in her eyes. He wasn't the only one to terrorize her, but he didn't waste his time with dirty tricks, unlike Pansy and her friends did. Girls had no imagination. Draco learned pretty quickly what buttons he needed to push to get Granger's attention, and he was rather good at it by now.

Only she'd seemed to learn how to turn the tables on him and he didn't appreciate that at all. The incident before was a great example of that since he'd lost it, completely. Even though his temper could get out of hand sometimes he had never hurt someone who wasn't able to defend themselves. And absolutely not females, not even someone as repulsive as Granger. He didn't see what he possibly could gain from hitting someone who had no chance against him. What was the fun in that? And yet, this time he had.

Although he knew Granger probably could put up a fight if it came to it. He'd personally got a taste of that right hook of hers. Thankfully enough there weren't any witnesses of that incident accept Crabbe and Goyle, who knew better than to spread it around. And of course Blaise, who didn't get to see the actual punch but got to see the sore aftermath.

It turned out that a broken nose meant a lot of blood. And being the loyal and supporting friend he was, he sat with him in the school infirmary until it stopped, and also took the blame so that no one would found out that Draco been punched by a girl. Although at the end of the day every single Gryffindor student knew about it, and because of that the rest of the school did too.

He could barely show is face for two weeks after that.

She was fierce when it came to her friends, that much he knew.

He was so deep into his own thoughts that he didn't notice when Blaise sat down next to him.

"If you keep staring at her like that people will think you're up to something you know."

Draco almost jumped out of his chair as Blaise swallowed his laugh not to make to much noise.

"When the bloody hell did you get here?" He asked as he corrected his seating position.

Blaise sniggered. "Pansy went to the toilet so I thought I'd come here and see how you were doing."

"I'm fine," Draco muttered.

"You've been sitting there staring at Granger since the lesson started, what's on your mind?"

"Nothing, just..." he began.

"Feeling guilty?" Blaise concluded.

"Why would I?!" Draco snapped. "She deserved it."

Blaise shook his head. "You're such a bad liar."

Draco chose to ignore him and instead, for the first time since the lesson began, opened up his science book.

Baise was perhaps the only one in Slytherin who did not give the Scholarship students a minute of thought. Draco had never heard him have an opinion about any of them, and if you tried to get one out of him, he usually just shrugged and walked away.

However, he seemed to think that Draco had some sort of obsession when it came to Granger. Which was absolutely not the case.

At least not in the way he thought his friend was trying to imply.

When Professor Snape started asking questions about one of the subjects, the mudbloods hand shot right up in the air, like it always did.

When Snape realized he could not find any other raised hands, he spoke with a drawling and irritated voice. "Yes, ms Granger."

At first, you couldn't hear what she was saying. Her voice, that usually was silvery and somewhat pleasant, was now low and hoarse.

"Speak up girl!" Snape sneered.

And as she did, it was clear that her voice was indeed strained. it was croaky and uneven. Something in Draco's stomach turned.

Yeah, he was a bad liar. The guilt was eating him up alive, but he would never admit it to anyone. Fuck, he could barely admit it to himself. He could feel the regret of it all burn on the inside.

Now that he felt calmer and heard the proof of his assault, he wished she would have broken his nose all over again. Just to let him off the hook from feeling like this.

He'd never touched her before. The reason was mostly that he never wanted to touch something as filthy as a mudblood, but also because he'd never had a reason to. and before this day, he'd never had. Well, except one time. But it had been an accident and in a very different way.

Draco watched her as she turned around to talk to Longbottom behind her. Thankfully she didn't notice him glancing at her.

He hadn't noticed earlier because of all his rage how much she'd actually changed through the summer. Her eyes had a different glow in them. She'd always had big and round eyes, but they usually looked very brown and warm. Now they glowed in amber, almost like gold. Her hair was in a braid that made her face more visible than before since it usually was hidden behind a bushy mess of brown hair.

Even if he hated to admit it, it been a great improvement in her appearance when she fixed her teeth their fourth year. He hated how other guys in school suddenly stopped to look at her when they saw her smile or laugh. It made him disgusted. Like it would change anything just because she suddenly had a pretty smile.

The same year she'd started to pay more attention to her hair as well. Pansy used to walk around saying it was to get Potter and Weasley to pay her more attention. Draco had a hard time imagen that was the actual reason.

Over the summer she'd obtained quite a lot of freckles around her nose that spread along her cheekbones. She looked healthy. She'd always had a lean body and over the past years, she'd required elegant curves, showing she wasn't a child anymore.

His eyes travelled from her face to her chest, down her abdomen and further along to her legs.

Fuck. His heart was suddenly beating a little faster than usual. What was he thinking? Disgusted by his own thoughts he turned his eyes to the notebook in front of him.

He hoped they did not have that many classes together this year. It was enough that he had to endure her presence thanks to their Head duties. He was not really interested in the head boy position. His father, on the other hand, would be thrilled. It had always been a given that Granger would be head girl, but as Nott had mentioned, Potter had been everyone's first guess. it all felt like a practical joke.

Blaise was still sitting next to him when half the lesson had pasted. Pansy was sitting behind them beside Millicent Bulstrode. Draco was somewhat relieved that he didn't have to listen to her annoying giggles for the rest of the lesson.

As he looked up, he noticed that the mudbloods seat was empty. Where had she gone?

He shouldn't care, she was probably visiting the lavatory. What did he care? He wasn't interested. At least he tried not to be.

Maybe her throat was hurting and she was visiting Madam Pomfrey? Would she tell her what happened? Would she tell the teachers and the headmaster? It was strange because he wasn't worried, just annoyed by the thought.

Not that he believed she would. She was too proud to let herself show that kind of weakness. However, he felt restless not knowing.

He stood up and started walking out of the classroom before he even had the chance of thinking it through. No one, not even Blaise had a chance to react before he was outside in the corridor. He had no idea where he was going. His legs moved on their own and before he knew it, he was standing outside the lavatories. He tried to listen after any kind of noise coming from inside the girl's restroom.

He could hear someone turn on the water in the sink.

He swore at himself. What was he doing? What could he possibly accomplish ambushing her like this? he was just going to make matters worse, he knew that much at the very least. But instead of turning around and walk back to the classroom, he leaned against the wall just beside the door, crossing his arms and waited.

The door finally opened and she passed him without noticing he was there.

He couldn't help but smirk. "Going somewhere, Granger?"

She stopped abruptly but didn't turn around. "I don't have time for this right now Malfoy," she croaked. Her voice sounded somewhat better, but not all that much. "I have a lesson to attend, so have you."

He grinned. She was still feisty. "caught a cold?" He taunted in amusement.

She finally turned around and he could see the fire in her eyes. This is what he wanted, this is what he needed. Her anger. Just looking at her, he could feel his restlessness fade away into nothing and something close to peacefulness filled him up in its stead.

"Leave me alone." She said, trying to make it sound like a warning, no doubt.

In response, he started to walk towards her, and like he suspected her pride kept her from backing away. "Are you afraid, mudblood?"

"No, I just won't put up with your shit anymore." She snapped.

Draco didn't answer her, he was busy watching her. Keeping his hands inside his pockets as not to scare her off too early. He wanted to see that fear again and yet he still felt that repulsive feeling of guilt in his stomach. Looking at her neck, the redness that she tried to hide behind her collar and tie he felt even more so.

"What do you want Malfoy?" She continued.

He didn't even know that himself. He wasn't thinking straight, he hadn't all morning. Something was off. But he couldn't stop himself.

When he was less than one feet away from her, she raised her head to glare up at him.

And as he raised his hand from his pocket and up towards her throat she looked like a deer in headlights. Frozen, with her eyes wide open.

He carefully moved the collar to the side and without a thought of the consequences, he let two of his fingers slowly stroke against the red skin.

She didn't move, only a muffled sound slipped her lips and now he could see it. Fear, and something else. Something he did not quite know what it was.

Her skin was warm, and he could feel her pulse racing beneath.

"You should have hit me." The words slipped out before he even realized what he just said.

"What?" she breathed.

Something inside of him stirred. An old memory, an old feeling. Had her eyes always been this tempting? Had she always smelled this good?

He cursed himself as he let the thoughts linger. Damn it, what in the world was he doing?

His fingers still examined the marks they had left only two hours ago, but she didn't back away. She didn't stop him. She looked as confused and lost as he felt.

"You should have hit me... Hard." He repeated and with that said, he took his hand away, turned around and walked away.


	4. Seven Years to Sin - Memories and acqua

**_Seven Years to Sin_**

 _Chapter Four_

 _Old memories and new_ _acquaintances_

Hermione returned to the classroom. There was no sign och Malfoy. She got the feeling he wouldn't return for the rest of the period.

He was acting very strange, she thought. She didn't know what to make of it. Not that she should care, but at that moment outside the lavatory, it had almost felt like Malfoy felt remorse for what he had done. Something in his eyes felt familiar. Like he felt pain for her. Something that woke an old memory in her mind.

And as she sat down to continue their assignment, she couldn't help but drift off, thinking about her first year at Hogwarts.

As expected, the first couple of weeks of her first year she'd been struggling to make friends. Not only because of her status, but also for being a bit bossy and a typical know-it-all. This even made her friendships with Harry and Ron get off to a very rocky start. Hermione had always wanted to prove herself and was keen on doing so, to both her teachers and her classmates. Unfortunately, she might have succeeded to impress most of her teachers, her classmates, however, not so much.

One day, they were having a math class with Professor Flitwick. She'd been seated next to Ron who struggled with one of the assignments they'd been given. In an attempt to help him out, Hermione had not only sounded rude but also quite judgemental. She did not realize this by then and had never meant it to come out as an insult. Of course, Ron did not know that, and as the lesson ended and she was on her way to her locker, walking a couple of feet behind them, she could hear Ron imitate the instructions she'd been giving him in a very impolite manner.

Hermione who took it very badly tried to keep her eyes from tearing up but failed miserably as Ron continued. "It's no wonder no one can stand her," sneering as they kept walking. "she's a nightmare, honestly."

After that Hermione been in such a hurry to get away from them, she'd rush past them, accidentally bumping into Harry's shoulder on the way. In an attempt to lick her wounds she'd hidden away in one of the booths in the girl's lavatory. But not before telling Parvati Patil to leave her alone after she'd run into her there whilst crying her eyes out. She sat there for forty-five minutes. Luckily it was lunchtime so no teacher would wonder about her absence.

After some time, trying to keep herself from making to much noise, the door opened and she expected it to be Parvati or someone other girls from their year, who wanted a reason to pick on her. Instead, she could her slow steps moving towards her booth.

"Do you plan on sitting there all day, sobbing like that?"

It was a boy. what was a boy doing in the girl's lavatory?

She thought his voice sounded familiar but couldn't quite remember where she'd heard it before.

"Who are you?" Hermione asked, still sobbing between her sentences. "Boys aren't allowed in here, this is the girl's lavatory!"

"Well, there is no one in here except for you and me so, I don't think anyone will mind." He replied.

Hermione felt incredibly insulted by this. Who did he think he was?!

"Well, I do! Get out of here!" Hermione argued while trying to wipe away the tears falling down her face.

"I'll leave when I feel like it." He stated simply, not at all discouraged by her scolding.

"What do you want?" She snarled.

At first, he didn't answer, and from where she sat on the toilet, she could only see his shoes through the slot between the door and the floor, rocking back and forth on his heels.

"Well?" She enquired.

"I just thought I should tell you not to mind what those two gits say about you," he mumbled. "Hiding in here crying isn't worth it."

Hermione couldn't help but frow as he spoke. Had he been close by when Ron said all those things? She Wondered why this stranger seemed concerned about it.

"What's it to you?" she asked.

A sigh followed as his voice tensed. "I told you, I don't think you should sit here and weep, just because a moron like Weasley got grumpy because you're a lot smarter than him and obviously smarter than this whole school combined."

He seemed frustrated about having to explain himself, which made Hermione even more curious.

"So, you think I'm smart?" She asked.

"Well, maybe not as clever as me, but pretty close, I guess." He answered somewhat arrogant. "you're probably one of the smartest in our year."

So, he was in the same year as her, she thought. Trying to connect a face with his voice.

She stood up."Wait a minute! Just a second ago you said I was the smartest in the school, and now you're saying you're smarter than me?"

"I just said that to make you stop sobbing because it's really annoying when girls cry!" He blurted out.

Starting to get irritated Hermione rushed towards the door and burst it open, "Oh really? Well, I think..."

What she didn't know was that he'd been standing there with crossed arms, leaning his shoulder against the door and when she opened it, he lost his balance and fell to the floor, taking her down with him.

They landed in a pile on the hard stone floor. Unaware of how close she'd been from bumping her head on the toilet seat, she gave away a muffled squeak as the boy's weight hit her.

It was when she saw his silver green tie that it hit her. She suddenly knew why the voice had been so familiar. He was a student, from Slytherin. And not just any Slytherin student. She was laying on the girl's lavatory floor, with no other than, Draco Malfoy.

"What the bloody hell." He groaned as he lifted his head up, leaning on his elbows trying not to let his weight crush her.

He grinned. "Nice catch, Granger."

This was her first close encounter with the obnoxious, proud and awful Slytherin boy.

From her first day at Hogwarts, she'd gotten the notion that Malfoy wasn't a particularly pleasant person. He was pretty much rude to everyone who didn't show him any interest or simply didn't get along with him. He'd even been rude to most of the teachers, except for Professor Snape, who he seemed to admire.

And it was pretty clear he didn't like Ron, or Harry, even if he'd tried befriending Harry their first day. So why did he try to be nice to her?

"Could you please get off me. You're heavy," she squealed.

At first, he just looked at her absent-minded before he suddenly got back on his feet, reaching down to give her a hand. Reluctantly she accepted his help and he pulled her up with one swift movement. Only, he kept her hand in his a moment longer than perhaps necessary, making her a little nervous. When he finally let go she realized he was looking straight at her. Behind him, she could see her face in one of the mirrors above the sink. Her face was red and swollen and her eyes dazed and irritated from all the crying. She looked horrible. She tried to make it go away by rubbing her arm against her face, making it look even worse instead.

Malfoy just stood there looking at her with a grim expression. "You can't go out and be seen like that." He complained. "You need to wash your face, you'll scare people off."

"Thanks," She snapped angrily.

He just shrugged. "Maybe you need to calm down first."

"I'm perfectly calm!"

Once again, he grinned. "Yeah, right! You just screamed at me for no reason and now you look like you're going to start crying again."

"Absolutely not..." She muttered, but upon seeing him eyeing her with a sceptical look, she couldn't help but let out a small laugh that ended up sounded more like a snort.

He shook his head in disbelief as he started going through the pockets on his trousers, taking out a small square device with a couple of headphones attached to it.

"Usually, when I'm in a bad mood, I listen to music." He said and handed it to her. "Maybe I'll make you feel better too."

She took a closer look at it.

"it's an iPod. Not an alien device." He laughed.

"Why are you giving it to me?" She asked, confused.

He sniggered. "I'm just borrowing it to you. You can return it later when you're done sitting here being pathetic."

"I'm not being pathetic!" She said, feeling upset, although she knew he probably was just trying to distract her from crying again.

"Yeah, well, I have to get out of here before I get into trouble. You can just leave it in my locker when you're done using it. Just slide it through the locker door. The number is 525, Fifth floor." He said, "Don't you dare steal it, I WILL hunt you down." He smirked and started walking towards the exit. "See you around, Granger."

And he left her, standing with his iPod in her hand and, with a confused look on her face.

She shook her head and examined it. It was small and thin in size, fitting perfectly in her hand. It matched the white headphones and looked really expensive. Purely out of curiosity, she put in the earpieces and pressed the display.

She smiled when The Beatles started to play, and she turned the volume up. Letting herself get completely consumed by the sound of a song called "I've just seen a face". She listened through his playlist for several minutes, forgetting everything else.

So when the fire-alarmed started shouting in the corridors, she was completely unaware of it.

it wasn't until the door swung open and Harry and Ron came barging in, out of breath from running through the smoke-filled corridor as she realized what was going on.

They'd come back in after the evacuation to get her out.

Further down the corridor, they were met by a very distraught Professor McGonagall in the company of Severus Snape and Dumbledore.

Apparently, they'd sneaked past the teachers when they realized Hermione wasn't among their classmates during the evacuation. When she asked them how they knew where to find her, they told her it was thanks to Parvati Patil. After Hermione asked Parvati to leave her alone before lunch, she'd told Lavender Brown about it, and Harry and Ron had apparently been within hearing distance.

They probably saved her life but got a big scolding from McGonagall. In a desperate try to help them out, Hermione explained she'd been listening to music and didn't hear the sirens. So she also got a big scolding but on the other hand, the professors also praised the two boys for their bravery and heroic action, all except Snape, of course.

She didn't see Malfoy after that. Instead, she did as she'd been told and found his locker to return the iPod, but also taped a Thank-you note on to it.

After the fire-incident, who turned out to be a practical joke that gone terribly wrong, made by Ron's two older brothers, Fred and George. They were supposed to make a concoction in Snape's chemistry lab that made the whole place filled up with a sticky lubricate for the unpleasant teacher to walk right into. Instead, it turned out to be highly flammable. Of course, no one could prove it was them, but it wasn't that hard to figure out who'd come up with it if you just tried. Which made Professor Snape even more unpleasant the following weeks.

It was the first, and the last time Draco Malfoy showed any consideration towards Hermione.

Shortly afterwards he was his usual awful self again and seemed to pretend their conversation in the girl's lavatory, never happened.

The first time he called her a mudblood was their second year when he'd been insulting Gryffindors soccer-team, and Hermione, being protective of her friends, defended Harry who'd made the team his first year, and the rest of his teammates. Ending up insulting Malfoy in front of his team.

She always wondered why he'd bothered to be nice to her that one time when he'd shortly after that began bullying her.

Sometimes when she thought about it, she couldn't help it but think it all might just have been her own imagination. Maybe he was never there, maybe he never gave her the iPod and she never returned it. She'd never asked him and she never would.

That theory made more sense than the one where she thought he might have actually cared. And for the last six years, she had known exactly what to expect from him. Until today. Today she had felt truly scared, but also confused. Malfoy had never been the violent type. Not when it came to her. So why today? What changed?

As she suspected, Malfoy didn't show up for the rest of the period and by the time the lesson was over, it was time for lunch.

She accompanied Harry, Ron and Neville to the dining Hall whilst talking to them about their upcoming test in Science following week. Of course, no one was at all interested in this. Neville tried to pay attention but forgot to when Ron started to talk about the tryouts for the soccer team. She enjoyed her friends very much, but sometimes she wished Ginny had been one year older. Having a girl around more often, wouldn't hurt.

She decided she would take a stroll to the library before next class as soon as she'd eaten. So she hurried down the food before saying goodbye to the others and then started the walk up to the first floor. The ground floor consisted of the great hall, the dining hall, the expedition and the teacher's lounge, a couple of classrooms, which one of them was the art and music room that belonged to Professor Trewlaney. But also the caretaker's office was located there. Where Rubeus Hagrid and Argus Filtch could be found if they did not have work to do somewhere in the building or on the grounds.

The first floor, however, consisted mostly of the biggest library Hermione had ever seen. She envied the headmaster for having his office next to it. It was a marvellous sight, and for someone who loved books as much as Hermione, couldn't wait to get acquainted with the many shelves again after such a long summer.

Irma Pince, the school librarian was as usually sitting by her desk, when she was not up and about to hush students, who talked to load. But the first day, Hermione couldn't think there would be many students in there.

Which was all very good in her opinion. She would always be left alone at the library if she stayed out of sight and kept to herself in the south area where the more uninteresting and old literature was kept, she was left alone for most of the time. At the very least people didn't stay long.

She could easily hide away behind a pile of books and focus only on her studies, or occasionally a relaxing novel. The library was perhaps the biggest area in the whole school. With all kinds of literature, old as new. To Hermione, it was heaven in every possible way. She spent most of her spare time there. Only, it was harder to not be noticed there since she was practically known to be a bookworm. However, if they wanted to come after her in this place, they needed to get past ms Pince. This was not a task you simply did on a whim.

Hermione could always find something interesting in the south area. She liked the old books the best. How they'd been through so much, some of them was over a century old. All the history and knowledge she could gain from them was fascinating. The mere thought of it would make her chest all warm and her lips curl up in a satisfied smile.

She loved the smell of books, especially really old ones, who had everything to tell, or really new ones, that never been used or touched by rough hands and dirty fingers.

As she walked alongside the shelves she drew her hand alongside the row of books. It was a weird habit of hers when she walked around in libraries.

She noticed she was getting closer to the end of the row and when she turned another curve to enter the next one, she suddenly tripped over a pile of books laying right there on the floor. She didn't notice the boy at first since she was busy cursing her tongue out.

It was not until she started to lean down to put all of them back into place that she noticed him sitting right next to her on the floor.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't see you." she breathed as she kept cleaning up the mess before her. "I'll fix this."

The boy just chuckled. "Don't worry about it."

She turned her head to insist on taking the blame and met eyes with Blaise Zabini. She couldn't help herself, the blood in her veins froze. The Slytherin boy stared at her with lifted eyebrows. He was very tall, so even as he was sitting down she felt quite little in size. his dark hair was cut shortly making his facial features more visible. He had very clear cheekbones and a big mouth, and dark and curious eyes that now was studying her. She wasn't afraid of him. No, Blaise had never done anything to her, never even so much as looked her way in fact, until this morning.

It was the person he usually spent his time with that worried her, and as if he'd read her mind, he smiled gently.

"He isn't here."

Hermione frowned. "Sorry?"

Blaise closed the book he currently held in his hand and looked right at her. "Draco. He isn't here, You don't need to be scared."

"Who says I'm scared?" She asked defensively.

"Your eyes just did," he replied.

Hermione stood up. "Well, I'm not, I am sorry for knocking your books over, but you really shouldn't sit on the floor like this."

"I like sitting here." Blaise took another book from the pile and opened it. Hermione couldn't help but look at the title.

"David Copperfield? You read Charles Dickens?" She asked.

Blaise looked at her, then down to the book and back to her again. "Well yes, I like his books. And since I'm taking Literature this year I bet I need some classics close by or McGonagall won't be pleased."

Hermione was surprised that Zabini of all people would be studying literature. He always seemed so, nonchalant.

She was used to a more quiet Blaise Zabini, he even seemed invisible at times. When she thought about it, she didn't see him as a Slytherin student at all. she rarely relaxed around them, but she was unexpectedly calm now, even when he was sitting there, staring at her. Sure, he was close friends with Malfoy but he didn't seem to get along with any of the others, maybe that was why?

"I guess not..." She said absent-mindedly.

"How about you? You must have found a hundred books by now?" He actually seemed curious. Looking at her with wondering eyes and a small grin on to his face.

"I just got here, actually," she mumbled.

Blaise looked baffled. "Really? Well, why don't we help each other out?"

"I don't need any help finding books," Hermione argued.

"Oh, but I do. I'm completely out of my depth here. I could really use your expertise on this matter."

He smiled and she could not believe it, was she having a small talk, with Blaise Zabini? Was he teasing her?

She kept looking around for Malfoy, thinking it might all be just a trick and that he would pop out his head behind one off the shelves at any second.

"I don't think..." She began, "I don't think that's such a good idea."

Blaise chuckled at this. "You know, just because Draco can't behave around you, doesn't mean I can't. You have nothing to fear from me."

"Yeah but that's not what I..."

"Isn't it? I wouldn't blame you if it was, After all, there isn't a single one in my class that's been nice to you. So why would I be any different?" Blaise stood up and picked up the stack of books, to place it on a nearby table. He was at the very least three heads taller than her, and yet she felt nothing threatening standing so close to him. He then suddenly looked serious. "Your throat looks better, and your voice sounds like it's back to normal, that's good."

"Why do you care?" She asked.

"You don't have to believe me, but fact remains that I do not agree or support the way that Draco or any of the others treat you."

Hermione crossed her arms over her chest in a sceptical manner. "You don't?"

He sat down in one of the chairs and gestured her to do the same opposite him. "What reasons would I have? Except for the obvious one, that seems to bother everybody else. Because I can assure you, I wouldn't care if you so were born to one of the homeless on the streets or into the royal family, You're still the brightest girl I ever had the pleasure to met."

"So his opinions don't matter to you? Even if he is your friend?" Hermione asked while doing as he pleased, sitting down on the chair, still with her arms crossed as to protect herself in some small way.

"No," he answered. "If a friend can't accept you for who you are, they aren't exactly a friend at all. Wouldn't you agree?"

"He doesn't seem to be the accepting type at all," Hermione muttered.

"Perhaps, I didn't really give him a choice," Blaise admitted. "Draco is an asshole to anyone who doesn't agree with him. He knows where I stand and he knows I don't take his opinions seriously."

Hermione couldn't help but smile at his comment but was still curious. "So what, he just accepted it? doesn't he see you as a traitor?"

Blaise sniggered. "Not at all. He knows that most people don't like him all that much, and the ones that do..." He paused. "Well, they aren't exactly good people, now are they? Even he finds them boring and stupid, so the only one that's left is me."

"So, you mean to say that your his friend and despite that, you're still a good person?" Hermione asked.

"I'm saying, that I am the only one who sees through his bullshit, and he values a clever mind above all else. Because bright people isn't as boring as ordinary ones, at least that's what he thinks." He shrugged. "Maybe that's why he finds it's so amusing, taunting you."

Hermione thought about it for a moment.

"Or he just finds me repulsive because I am a daughter of two dentists and not an Earl and Countess, like him."

Blaise smiled as he wavered with one of the books. "Maybe. However, I'd like to think there's more to my friend than mere prejudices. After all, I wouldn't want him to be that predictable."

He suddenly rose from his seat, now pulling one of the books out from underneath the pile and smiled at her.

"Thank you for helping me choose a book."

Hermione frowned. "I haven't..."

Blaise laughed. "One more thing you should know is that I'm very observant."

He held up the book in front of her. "The moment I asked you to help me choose a book, you turned your eyes to this one. I assume you've read it since you did, and judging by your surprise and curiosity when you saw me with one other of this author's work, I presume you like it."

Hermione just sat there, looking at him like she'd never seen anything like it. He was not just observant. To her, it seemed as if he could read her mind.

"Oliver Twist... Is it a favourite of yours?" He asked looking at the title.

She nodded, not capable of doing anything else.

He looked amused. "Well, thank you, Hermione. I hope you find something to read as well." And then he left.

Hermione just stared at his back, thinking this school day was like no other.


End file.
